Helmet mounted displays are well known in the art. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,477 to Welch et al., a helmet mounted display is disclosed in which a rear projection screen image is viewed through a magnifying eyepiece prism. More recently, helmet mounted displays in which a wide field of view is achieved by projection of an SLM image onto a screen or image synthesizing optic before being magnified through an eyepiece are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,323 to Hildebrand et al. and 5,483,307 to Anderson. The use of spatial light modulators and beam splitting cubes in such helmet mounted display optics is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,451 to Handschy et al.
Difficulties experienced in known prior art systems are typically eye strain or eye fatigue, lack of image resolution, weight of the image optic system which impedes freedom of hand movement in the helmet mounted display, as well as the presence of dangerous voltages or levels of electromagnetic radiation on or near the head. While various prior art systems have attempted to solve such difficulties individually, there is a need for a helmet mounted display having an improved performance which addresses the various difficulties experienced in the prior art.